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.3 

A DISCOURSE 



C|e Imperatibe Jnties of t^e Jour, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



E STREET BAPTIST CHTTRCU, 

WASHINGTON, D. C, 

SABBATH EVENING, JULY 5, 1863, 

BY THE PASTOR, 



i/ 



rl 



Rev. E. H. gray. 



WASHINGTON : 

H. POLKINHORN, PRINTER, D STREET, BETWEEN GtH AND 7tH. 
1863. 



.3 



Washington, July 9, 1863. 
Rev. E. H. Gray, Pastor E Street Baptist Church. 

Reverend and Dear Sir : — Having had the privilege of listening, on 
Sunday evening last, to your eloquent discourse on "The Imperative 
Duties of the Hour," and desiring that the admonitions which you have 
uttered, as appropriate to this day of trouble and rebuke, may reach a 
wider circle of our fellow-citizens, -we respectfully request that you will 
favor us with a copy for publication, and thus add to the many obligations 
under which we remain, 

Most faithfully yours, 
JAMES C. WELLING, J. S. POLER, 

GEORGE WOOD, J. H. YEATMAN, 

Z. RICHARDS, J. T. GIVEN, 

A. ROTHWELL, EDMUND F. BROWN. 



Washington, July 10, 1863. 
Gentlemen : — Your note asking for a copy of the Sermon preached last 
Sabbath evening, is received. Your opinion has great weight with me. 
From the high respect I entertain for your wishes I submit the discourse 
to your disposal. It was prepared under a sense of great responsibility to 
God and to my country. That we may individually be prepared for " The 
Duties of the Hour," and ready to respond cheerfully to the claims of the 
noblest government God ever gave to man, is the prayer of 
Truly your servant, 

E. H. GRAY. 
Messrs. J. C. Welling, George Wood, Z. Richards, A. Rothwell, J. S. 
Poler, J. H. Yeatman, J. T. Given, Edmund F. Brown. 




DISCOURSE. 



•aUIT YOU LIKE MEN."— I Cor 16: 13. 



You recollect the opening words of the famous French 
preacher, at the funeral of the Grrand Monarch : " Only God 
is Great !" As I stand to-night amid strange scenes, the 
waves of excitement and awful desolation surging around me, 
and great changes, involving the interests, and happiness, and 
national existence even, of thirty millions of human beings ; 
I feel " Only God is Great !" It seems a kind of impiety 
to recognize any hand but that which made the world. I 
know men figure in these scenes largely, but I look upon 
them only as insignificant agents ; and their very insignifi- 
cance serves only to bring all the more clearly into the fore- 
ground, that mysterious Power which led the bannered 
hosts of Israel through the wilderness — which stood by 
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace ; and 
which, in the visions of heaven, "John saw riding forth in 
righteousness, to judge and to make war !" That august 
Power is passing through the nation, and amid convulsion 
and the shock of battle, his voice rings out like a trumpet, 
" Quit you like menP'' 

Our Government, the freest-, noblest, best Government of 
the world, is in peril. All its free institutions are threatened 
by a gigantic and unholy rebellion, evoked from the sea of 
stormy passions. It is a Government constructed by the 



THE IMPERATIVE DUTIES 



•wisdom, and cemented by the blood of our fathers. It occu- 
pies a continent that seems designed to be united in one 
political union, inhabited by one people, speaking one lan- 
guage, and establishing an identity of interest. This Gov- 
ernment was intended to be perpetual, it was accepted with 
that understanding, it was ratified in most solemn covenants 
and blood, and thus introduced into the brotherhood of the 
nations of the earth. Under this Government we have 
become a most happy and favored people. We have had 
peace at home and respect abroad. We have been prospered 
without a parallel. The area of our territory has been ex- 
tended, our population increased, the sails of our commerce 
spread over every sea, and our institutions have given us 
position and prestige among the nations, and have commanded 
respect and honor in courts and cabinets beyond the seas. 
Here the arts have flourished, enterprise has been quickened, 
territories have been improved, intelligence has been diffused, 
prejudices have been corrected, ideas enlarged, wealth accu- 
mulated, civilization extended, and society achieved a per- 
manent advance, and the Kingdom of God has been expand- 
ing itself, and girding for future conquest. Indeed, the his- 
tory of the world presents no other such instance of liberty, 
order, and happines. All these are now in peril ; God calls 
us to rise up for their defence ! It is not for military con- 
quest we gird on our arms — witness High Heaven — but to 
defend the Government against overthrow ; the Constitution 
against anarchy ; liberty against military despotism, and 
loyalty against treason ! The great body of our people would 
have rejoiced to have escaped the conflict ; they prayed 
against it ; they reasoned against it — but it has come. Our 
armies have been mustered into service, they have met on 
the battle-field, and, as a people, we stand to-day confronted 
with all the stern, grim, and terrible realities of civil war ! 
What, then, are the imperative duties of the hour? 



OF THE HOUR. 



I. — There should be humiliation before God, and sin- 
cere REPENTANCE FOR SIN. 

We are verily guilty, and it is for our sins God is punish- 
ing us. Nothing is clearer than that for the first 4,000 
years of our race, God gave special attention to the manage- 
ment of nations and of governments. He dealt with na- 
tions in prosperity and in judgment, with rewards and with 
punishments, just as He did with individuals; He dealt with 
them by name and by character ; He dealt with nations and 
with national sins; He delivered oppressed nations from their 
oppressors ; He exalted, and He debased them ; He raised 
them up, and He destroyed them. High above all em- 
pire roll the living wheels of God's moral Government ; 
and the rolling of those wheels can no more be arrested than 
can the sun in his march. Whenever, therefore, nations 
have thrown themselves across the track of those burning 
wheels, they have been like gossamer in the path of the 
whirlwind. Egypt, ancient of empires, in her pride, threw 
herself across it, and headless sphinxes, cities of the dead, 
and pyramids, which lift themselves as the gravestones of 
4,000 years, are all that remain of her ancient grandeur. 
The Assyrian threw himself across it, and mountain heaps 
and masses of vitrified rubbish strown amid arid wastes — 
these, the " finger prints of the Red Right Hand,'" tell us where 
Celestial Wrath did its dreadful work ! Tyre and Idumea 
threw themselves across it ; and their ruins show where the 
car of vengeance drove along the mountains of Edom ! The 
Jew threw himself across the Eternal Counsels, and the liv- 
ing wheels rolled over him ! " The Roman ploughshare has 
passed over the sepulchre of David, and the Moslem Mosque 
rises on the sight of the. Holy of Holies !" Hence, we are 
taught (and it is a fearful lesson that comes down from dead 



6 THE IMPERATIVE DUTIES 

nations) that sin challenges the wrath of Heaven, and whelms 
guilty nations in ruin. When nations become impious, and 
scoff at God, and trample upon his authority, then the angels 
of wrath are already at work, and the fires of ruin are already 
on temple and tower ; for " wider than the sword devours, or 
the pestilence walks, or the whirlwind raves, prevails the 
eternal law for men and nations, that to sin is to die !"* 

And we have sinned ! Men and brethren, as a nation, 
we have sinned ! We have been mad in our pursuit of 
gain ; we have been irreverent towards God ; we have scoffed 
at his law; we have desecrated His Sabbaths; we have pro- 
faned his name ; we have cruelly oppressed the weaker race 
in our borders, and the cry of four millions of God's poor has 
gone up to Heaven against us — 'therefore, the judgments of 
God are upon us, and "His red artillery has started down 
the slope of the Heavens" and opened upon us ! What shall 
we do ? Do as Nineveh did ! The prophet cry rung through 
the city its terrible alarm. It was repentance or ruin ! The 
king rose up from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered 
him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. The people followed 
the example ; the people of that great city bowed before 
God, humbled, and penitent, and believing. And God turned 
away his wrath and saved them ! So He will save us, if we 
humble ourselves, confess our sins, and turn away from our 
wrong-doing. This, this is the first imperative duty of the 
hour. 



The II IS, Loyalty to the Government. 

I am not here to preach politics, in the part}'" sense of 
the term ; I never did this in the pulpit; I think I shall not 
begin now. Nor am I here to make an apology for my 

* Voices of History by T. M. Post, D. D. 



OF THE HOUR. 



utterances. Honest plainness of speech, inspired by the fear 
of God, and bj love for our common country, which only 
deepens under disaster, surely can offend no honest hearer, 
if he be either Christian or patriot. And the times, in my 
judgment, imperatively demand that the pulpit should speak. 
This is no how- for God's servants to hide themselves and 
practice ambiguity. The tremendous and appalling drama 
of events, in which God is chief actor, should bring every 
man to the altar of pra^'-er, and then carry him, at once, from 
the altar to the discharge of the duties he owes to God and 
to his country. 

I honor the clergymen of Philadelphia, who, last week, 
offered to go into the trenches, to work for the defence of the 
city. They did no more than their duty. Clergymen should 
both preach and practice loyalty. I should be very happy 
with my brother clergymen to do the same thing for Wash- 
ington, when necessary. 

No good citizen can be neutral in such an hour as this. 
The principle which Christ applied to men in respect to His 
kingdom will apply equally here : " S^e that is not for me is 
against one .'" It must be so, for we cannot serve two mas- 
ters. We are, therefore, called upon to prove, by patriotic 
sacrifices, that hosts of freemen, rallying at the call of the 
Government, can sustain it, and uphold it, and defend it, 
better than it can be defended by a standing army. We are 
to prove ourselves worthy of our institutions, worthy of our 
lineage, worthy of the rights of freemen, by making sacri- 
fices with cheerfulness; by rendering due reverence to those 
whom God has placed in authority, and by remaining true 
to the great interests at stake, amid all risks of life or treas- 
ure, through all trial and disaster, to the end. And recollect 
the Government does not consist in a piece of parchment, 
but in the living men who, by the Providence of God, are 
entrusted with the administration of national affairs ; and if 
you do not support the men charged with the interests of the 



8 THE IMPERATIVE DUTIES 

nation, you bid for a revolution, and that will bring anarchy. 
Let loyalty then find a home in every patriotic breast. Let 
its suppressed fires flame out I Let its earnest words be 
voiced forth ! Let the patriotic glow become hotter and 
whiter ! Let the fervor of patriotism be like the subterra- 
nean forces that rock a mountain or shake a continent. 
This is the second duty of the hour — loyalty I 



The III Duty demanded, is Earnest Prayer. 

Oh, what act more imperative at this awful hour, than that 
of earnest, importunate prayer to Almighty God? The nation 
ought to be upon their knees ! The divine displeasure is 
waked up against us. The voice of God's Providence, lifted 
above the tumults of the people, is calling us to thoughtful- 
ness and to prayer. 

In ancient times, when the war note rang through the 
tribes of Israel, the people flocked to Shiloh, to ask counsel 
of Jehovah, before they set the battle in array against the foe. 
Oh, that the nation would now come up to the world's great 
Shiloh. A better preparation for the present crisis, I am sure, 
cannot be secured than humbly to confess our sins and com- 
mit our country's cause to the care of Almighty God. This 
done, we may safely take the field against rebellion, and, in 
the name of the Lord, set up our banner. Indeed, prayer 
is urgent. Pray ye who can. Pray for our brothers 
already in arms, who have left home and friends, and gone 
forth to battle for our dearest rights and most sacred liberties. 
Pray for those who are gathering to breast the shock of bat- 
tle, to pour out their blood and sacrifice their lives upon the 
altar of their country. Pray as the Eoyal Singer and Cap- 
tain of Israel did: " Wilt not thou, oh, God, go forth loith our 
hosts and had on our armics?^^ Pray for our commanders, 
that they may be men of God. Pray for the sick and 



OF THE HOUR. 



wounded, and for the prisoner. Pray for our public enemies, 
entreating God to give them repentance for their great crime, 
and turn them away from their great wickedness. Pray for 
the Chief Magistrate and his associates, that God would endue 
them with all the wisdom, and prudence, and energy, and 
decision necessary to meet the tremendous responsibilities 
of the hour. Pray for bereaved and bleeding hearts in lonely 
homes ; hearts whose agonized thoughts, by an irresistible 
fascination, go forth on the battle-field in the (;ieep hour of the 
night, searching for well-remembered faces and familiar forms, 
now gashed and gory. Oh, what imaginary searchings are 
on yonder field to-night ! Oh, pray for them. Prayer is the 
third great duty of the hour ! 



The IV IS, Coxcert of Action among all Loyal Men. 

This is no time to contend for personal preferences, or to 
maintain party attachments. It is a time that calls for the 
union of all true men in the one great issue now pending 
before the country. Could I get the ear of politicians, I 
would say, let there be no contending for old party lines, 
and no attempt to form new issues, while the roar of cannon 
is in our ears and the sword at our breasts. Side issues are 
now out of place. We ask not for men's antecedents, we 
care nothing for them ; we ask for their present loyalty. 
We want "one idea'''' men, and that idea for the Government." 
We may differ in respect to many things in the past ; we 
may differ as to many things in the future ; but God grant 
we may be a " unit " for the present. " Misguided and trea- 
sonable men have left us no alternative (a statesman has well 
said) but to fight ; our capital must be defended, our flag 
must be sustained, the authority of the Government must be 
vindicated !" To do this we must be united. If we divide 
our strength our cause is lost. We cannot conquer this rebel- 



10 THE IMPERATIVE DUTIES 



lion unless we are thoroughly united in purpose to do so, 
and if we are thus united, with the blessing of God, nothing 
is surer than our successful triumph. 



V. — We should strike vigorously, and earnestly, and 

FATALLY, THIS KeBELLION. 

This fierce and bloody war has been forced upon us by 
disappointed, wicked men; and I verily believe if we would 
save the effusion of blood, if we would shorten the fearful 
struggle, if we would conquer an enduring peace, we must 
smite this rebellion with a giant arm. There must be no 
dismemberment of :he republic. Should we' consent to such 
a separation it would settle nothing. Two clusters of States, 
such as the proposed dismemberment would give us, cannot 
possibly divide our territory amicably between thern. The 
very structure of the Continent forbids it ; all the antecedents 
of our history forbid it ; all the passions of our nation forbid 
it ; the ink upon such a treaty of peace would scarcely be 
dry, before the hot embers of civil strife would fiame up 
afresh. The only way out of this terrible war is on straight 
through it luith tnight and main. 

Just after the rebellion broke out, a statesman of France* 
said to an American : " Sir, your republic is dead, and it is 
probably the last the world will ever see. You will have a 
reign of terrorism, and after that, break up into monarchies." 
" Yotir rejmhlic dead P^ High Heaven forbid it ! God of our 
fathers, and God of the right, forbid it ! And still, all this, 
and more, is likely to be verified if this revolt succeed. 
This conflict, then, in which we are engaged, is not for our- 
selves alone, nor even for our j^osterity : it is for the world — • 
it is for all time. 

* M. Achille Fould, Minister of Finance. 



OF THE HOUR. H 



The question of the possibility of maintaining free institu- 
tions is now before the world for solution. The problem of 
the continuance of a free government is about to be solved, 
and if the grand experiment, inaugurated by our fathers, and 
so long and so successfully carried forward in our hands, shall 
now fail, and our country sink into a state of anarchy, or 
be broken up into petty sovereign States, alien, hostile, and 
making war upon each other, farevjell to future rej^uhlics ; 
farewell to the genius of liberty ; farewell to the freedom of the 
world! For despotism, having clutched the throat of free- 
dom, will throttle her ; and^^vljen the heart that beats so 
proud and strong with glorio.trs"ho|)e3 and memories is stilled, 
then the wretched ages that wait on dead empires will gather 
around and lay her in the grave. 

Oh, brethren, shall there be such a burial ? To prevent 
this let us strike — strike hard; deal overwhelming blows; 
send the giant treason staggering to the earth. Finish the 
work — finish it effectually — finish it forever ! Let it hence- 
forth be settled that this Grovernment has a right to be ; and 
when discontent and treason stretch out their sacrilegious 
hand, to smite down the pillars of government, let that hand 
itself be smitten down and forever palsied. This rebellion 
has grown to such gigantic proportions that no half-way 
measures to suppress it will suffice ; no feeble, superficial 
treatment will cure the malignant cancer. Surgery, terrible 
surgery, is demanded, to cut deep around its roots and probe 
it to the bottom. Let the cautery burn this ulcer out. This 
is not cruelty, but kindness. I would not love to amputate 
a limb, but I would cut away the limb with knife and saw — 
through flesh, and bone, and marrow, to save a man's life ; 
this would be mercy to the man. So, love for the country, 
for our homes, for our free institutions ; nay, philanthrophy 
and patriotism, and liberty, all demand vigorous and sum- 
mary treatment of this rebellion. The questions of national 
rights and constitutional freedom should now be so settled 



12 THE IMPERATIVE DUTIES 

that the grim spectre of secession and treason shall not again 
pass through the land, with fire and sword, shaking their 
gory locks in the faces of posterity. Yet I would by no 
means counsel unnecessary severity. Loyalty is not revenge. 
A spirit of bitterness and hate does not wait upon justice. 
True courage does not revel in wanton violence. A holy 
cause, like ours, does not require cruelty. Strike, but be 
magnanimous ; strike, but pity. This is both the lesson and 
the duty of the hour. 



VI. — We should cherish in this conflict, a firm and 

UNWAVERING RELIANCE UPON DiVINE PROVIDENCE. 

A most imperative duty always, but especially so at this 
juncture. If ever a nation could stand uncovered before the 
God of battles, and appeal to his Almighty arm to give vic- 
tory to the right, then I solemnly believe that we may, in 
this hour, rely upon God. I believe we are in the right ; I 
believe God is on the side of the right, and the right will 
ultimately prevail. The victory may not come to day, nor 
to-morrow. It may be long delayed. It may not come with- 
out much cost of blood and treasure, it probably will not ; 
for what, either great or good, was ever obtained that did 
not pass through a baptism of blood? But it will come, as 
sure as truth, and knowledge, and right, and freedom, shall 
prevail over error, and ignorance, and tyranny, and crime ; 
it will come. The goal is certain, fore written in prophecy 
and in history. We can wait for the issue, if need be ; wait 
in patience and in hope, since we are moving on in the line of 
causes, fixed as the Throne of God, and sure of triumph as 
His own kingdom of truth and righteousness. Hence, this 
cause is one which every Christian can plead before his God. 
It is one which every minister can take into his pulpit, and 
advocate with the same voice with which he pleads the won- 



OF THE HOUR. 13 



ders of redemption. But, replies the objector, was not your 
master a man of peace ? Most certainly, He was the " Prince 
of Peace ;" and yet, there are times when it is equally true, 
as He Himself said, " I came not to send peace, but a sword !" 
This, doubtless, is one of them. 

Hence, I think there need be no hesitation in our minds 
concerning the attitude of God in this field of strife. I speak 
with reverence, yet with firm conviction, when I say that 
every attribute of God, and every movement of His hand in 
human history, points clearly towards the integrity and the 
justice of this cause. If it were "conquest" that was in- 
tended, or mere "military subjugation," or "avarice," or 
" oppression," that was sought for in this war, on our part, 
we might well have our misgivings. But it is a struggle for 
"freedom," for "justice," for "right," for the maintenance of 
a righteous government and equitable laws ; and hence, the 
" Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge !" 
But, if God is with us, why are our armies suffered to be 
defeated ? I reply, why did God permit His chosen peo- 
ple, the Jews, to be frequently defeated by their enemies, 
while He Himself was leading them from Egypt to Canaan ? 
Why did He allow them to be driven, panic-smitten, before 
their enemies, even after they had entered the promised land ? 
This, we now see, was no evidence that God was not with 
them. Why did God permit His servant Daniel to remain 
all night among the lions, and not send deliverance till morn- 
ing ? This was no proof that God had forsaken the prophet ! 
Why did Christ suffer his disciples to be tossed a whole night 
on a tempestuous sea, every moment liable to go down, and 
not go to their relief till the fourth watch of the night, or five 
o'clock in the morning ? This was no evidence that Christ 
had abandoned his disciples. Why did God permit Sin and 
Satan to run riot over all the earth for 4,000 years, before he 
sent deliverance to the race, in the person of his Son ? Nor 
have we any reason to apprehend that God has forsaken us 



14 THE mrEEATIVE DUTIES 

because every movement is not a success, and every battle a 
victory. 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform, 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm," 

directing it. God is directing this storm, and at the right 
time, and in the right manner. He will still it. When we 
come to read God's record of this war, we shall find that 
every battle lost, every fortress evacuated, and every soldier 
slain, were necessary to our final success. God's sovereign hand 
is in the whole ; it is as busy in our affairs to-day, as it was 
in those of David and Solomon. It is guiding the marching 
of events as truly now, as in those stupendous scenes des- 
cribed in the Apocalypse. Hence, a late writer* has very 
significantly compared God's government to a huge time 
piece, wound up and set a going by the hand of the Almighty 
Maker. " The pendulum of this great clock is ever swinging, 
ticking one child of Adam into existence, and ticking another 
out. Now, it gives the whirr of warning, and the world 
may look out for some great event. Then it speedily rings 
in a noisy revolution. Another swing of the pendulum, a 
continent is discovered, a kingdom is dismembered, an em- 
pire falls. "We cannot read the writing on the mystic cogs 
as they are coming slowly up ; but each of them is coming 
on God's errand, and carries in its graven brass, a Divine 
decree !" And thus, the great clock of human destiny will 
move on till a mighty hand shall grasp its heart and hush 
its pulse of iron. Truly God is in human destiny. Let us 
trust him ! 

Thus, brethren, I have given you my thoughts on the 
duties of the hour. I have not spoken as a politician or a 
partizan, but as a minister of Christ, and a citizen of this 
great republic. I have duties and interests in common with 

* Rev. James Hamilton, D. D. 



OF THE HOUR. 15 



you, and hence I have spoken from a sense of duty to you, 
to my bleeding country, to my God. If the views I have 
expressed are not, in your opinion, correct, or the utterances 
deemed out of place, I have only to say, you have as much 
right to think your thoughts as I have to think mine. All 
I claim is, to do my own thinking ; I accord to you the right 
to do yours. But, brethren, a great responsibility is on us. 
"We are living, we are dwelling, in a grand and awful time." 
God has summoned us to "array both for the battle and for 
the altar." Shall we quit us like men ? Never in our day 
did we stand on so high a moral vantage-ground. Never, I 
firmly believe, were we in closer alliance with eternal justice 
than now. A vast work is to be done, requiring great forti- 
tude, valor, loyalty, and faith in God. Shall we quit us like 
men. We have only to glance at the colossal forces arrayed 
against each other in mortal struggle, to perceive that we 
are in the midst of events, the fame of which will go sound- 
ing along the ages to come. Events move on with, a rush ; 
there is something in their magnitude, rapidity, and prodi- 
gious effects which baffles all strategy and defies all foresight. 
A thousand years used to be with the Lord as one day, now 
one day is almost as a thousand years. These are the times 
appointed for the highest development of manhood ; this is 
the hour for making heroes ; mankind are marching on to 
freedom ! "Each revolution is a step ;" the wheels of destiny 
do not go backward ; the " sun of the moral universe is 
entering a new ecliptic !" Trust in God ; Jehovah is Ruler 
of Nations, not demagogues. It is always folly to try to 
walk through this world by sight only ; it is madness to do 
so now ! 

Oh ! let us remember, if we would not be confounded, if we 
would triumph over the wrong, if we would look the future 
in the face without dismay, we must keep step to the music 
of Divine Providence, and in all our march shout " alleluia, 
FOR THE Lord God omnipotent reigneth !" 



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